Okla-homey
10/22/2006, 10:48 AM
Oct 22, 1942 : Allies confer secretly about Operation TORCH
http://img333.imageshack.us/img333/1300/ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt04maptorchji2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sixty-four years ago on this day in 1942, American Maj. Gen. Mark Clark meets in Algeria with French officials loyal to the Allied cause, as well as French Resistance fighters, regarding the launch of Operation TORCH, the first Allied amphibious landing of the war.
http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/3662/ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttmarkclark82728cd 8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Then Maj. Gen. Mark Clark. He eventually rose to four-star rank, commanded the US Fifth Army that helped conquer Fascist Italy and southern Europe. he also led forces in Korea.
It was decided as early as Christmas 1941, at the Arcadia Conference in Washington, that an Allied offensive against Rommel and the German army in North Africa would be launched.
http://img333.imageshack.us/img333/4184/tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt0scotorchxf3.j pg (http://imageshack.us)
TORCH was planned in a seaside hotel in the vicinity of Norfolk VA as memorialized by this Virginia highway historical marker
The details were debated for months, as American government officials objected to an early British operation, codenamed GYMNAST, which was deemed too costly,potentially ineffective and ultimately scrapped.
Also significantly, the American chiefs of staff were anxious to engage the Germans in Europe -- not Africa. An ultimatum was even proposed: Unless the British supported an Allied cross-Channel attack, vis-a-vis, an invasion of France, the United States would turn its attention to the Pacific and maintain only a defensive posture toward Germany.
President Roosevelt was unwilling to issue such an ultimatum and demonstrating one of the hallmarks of American democracy in action (namely civilian control of the military,) ordered the military branches back to the drawing board to work out a compromise operation for North Africa.
Operation TORCH was that compromise. A secret meeting in Algiers, which was also one of the intended landing targets, was planned by an American diplomat stationed in North Africa.
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6088/tttttttttttttttttttttttttorch2ho0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
American General Clark and members of his staff flew to Gibraltar and were then taken to Algiers via the British submarine HMS Seraph. Meeting with French army officers and Resistance fighters, Clark laid out the plan for the American landing and opened the discussion for who would be entrusted with leading the French forces.
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/9884/ttttttttttttttttttttttttseraphyh7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
On the campus at The Citadel in Charleston, SC, the Seraph Monument is a memorial consisting of relics from HMS Seraph, including the periscope and a forward torpedo loading hatch. Both the U.S. and British flags fly from the structure to symbolize that this English submarine was placed under the command of an American Naval officer for its TORCH mission. It is the only shore installation in the U.S. permitted to fly the Royal Navy White Ensign
See, the problem was, as anyone who has seen Casablanca (one of the greatest movies of all time BTW) knows, after the Nazi occupation of France, the Germans had propped-up a puppet French government loyal to Hitler popularly known as "Vichy."
Under the armistice agreement Germany foisted on the defeated French, the Reich was granted control of three-fifths of France. In France, a Nazi-friendly government was established under Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain in the southern French resort city of Vichy.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1452/tttttttttttttttttttttttttttpetainbcz6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Pétain, seen here, and his prime minister, Pierre Laval, established a Fascist-oriented government that became notorious for its collaboration with German dictator Adolf Hitler. The Vichy government ruled with Germany's approval, appointing all government officials, controlling the press, and practicing arbitrary arrests. The government also passed anti-Semitic laws and rounded up French, Spanish, and Eastern European Jews who were deported to German concentration camps. After the Allies landed in France in 1944, Pétain went to Germany and then to Switzerland. He returned to France after the war to stand trial for treason. In August 1945 he was found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment -- mostly because he had been a hero during WWI when he led a courageous defense at Verdun. After sentencing, he was moved to Ile d'Yeu, an island off the coast of Brittany, where he later died.
Under the terms of that 1940 armistice, the Vichy government was allowed to maintain enough of a military force to protect its colonies. Nazi occupation troops monitored the French military to insure it could not rebuild to mount a rebellion.
Though the French were denied new equipment or parts for their aging military forces, the Vichy still fielded a respectable armed presence. In French Morocco alone, one of three proposed landing sites for the planned Allied invasion, there remained an army of 55,000 supported by 160 light tanks, 80 armored cars, artillery batteries and 160 fighter aircraft.
Sheltered inside the great port at Casablanca was one French cruiser, three large destroyers, seven additional destroyers, and the as-yet-unfinished but combat-capable battleship Jean Bart. Churchill and Roosevelt also knew that a similarly formidable French/Algerian force could be quickly mounted to repulse any Allied invasion at the two other proposed landing sites, Oran and Algiers.
Therefore, French forces still in the field around the world in France's colonial possessions had become the enemy of US and British forces. This meant there was a very real fear that the French forces still in North Africa would oppose any Allied landings and kill our boys.
Gen. Charles De Gaulle, so instrumental in the organization of Resistance forces, was ruled out. De Gaulle had organized more than a few Resistance operations in which his collection of recalcitrant Froggies had killed large number of uniformed Frenchmen who took orders from Marshal Petain and Vichy France -- thus making him rather unpopular among the Vichy French forces.
Therefore, Allied leaders believed DeGaulle would prove antagonistic to those French soldiers and officers loyal to Petain and Vichy France, but who might be encouraged to turn on their German masters when supported by a massive Allied operation. The Allies banked on the notion that the Vichy French army and naval forces would not be willing to stick their necks out in a stand-up fight against an overwhelming Allied display of power.
It was finally agreed that Gen. Henri Giraud would lead the African French, as he had support in both the Vichy and Free French camps.
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/5672/ttttttttttttttttttttttgeneralgiraudsz8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Henri Giraud
The meeting was interrupted at one point by the arrival of French police loyal to the Vichy government. Clark and company had to hide out in a nearby wine cellar. The conference resumed the next day--and plans for bringing the "Torch" of freedom to French North Africa took final shape. The successful Allied landings began on Nov. 8, 1942 amid only sporadic Vichy French opposition and helped lead to the ultimate defeat of the kraut Afrika Corps.
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/1067/ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt04beachlandingwk9.j pg (http://imageshack.us)
As an aside, Gen. Clark lost his pants while coming ashore from the British submarine in a rubber dinghy on this day. Those pants are still in the collection of the The Citadel Archives and Museum at your correspondent's undergrad alma mater. Mark Clark became president after his retirement from the Army following the Korean War. Gen. Clark is the only person buried on campus.
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/9440/tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttphoto170qf4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img333.imageshack.us/img333/1300/ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt04maptorchji2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sixty-four years ago on this day in 1942, American Maj. Gen. Mark Clark meets in Algeria with French officials loyal to the Allied cause, as well as French Resistance fighters, regarding the launch of Operation TORCH, the first Allied amphibious landing of the war.
http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/3662/ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttmarkclark82728cd 8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Then Maj. Gen. Mark Clark. He eventually rose to four-star rank, commanded the US Fifth Army that helped conquer Fascist Italy and southern Europe. he also led forces in Korea.
It was decided as early as Christmas 1941, at the Arcadia Conference in Washington, that an Allied offensive against Rommel and the German army in North Africa would be launched.
http://img333.imageshack.us/img333/4184/tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt0scotorchxf3.j pg (http://imageshack.us)
TORCH was planned in a seaside hotel in the vicinity of Norfolk VA as memorialized by this Virginia highway historical marker
The details were debated for months, as American government officials objected to an early British operation, codenamed GYMNAST, which was deemed too costly,potentially ineffective and ultimately scrapped.
Also significantly, the American chiefs of staff were anxious to engage the Germans in Europe -- not Africa. An ultimatum was even proposed: Unless the British supported an Allied cross-Channel attack, vis-a-vis, an invasion of France, the United States would turn its attention to the Pacific and maintain only a defensive posture toward Germany.
President Roosevelt was unwilling to issue such an ultimatum and demonstrating one of the hallmarks of American democracy in action (namely civilian control of the military,) ordered the military branches back to the drawing board to work out a compromise operation for North Africa.
Operation TORCH was that compromise. A secret meeting in Algiers, which was also one of the intended landing targets, was planned by an American diplomat stationed in North Africa.
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6088/tttttttttttttttttttttttttorch2ho0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
American General Clark and members of his staff flew to Gibraltar and were then taken to Algiers via the British submarine HMS Seraph. Meeting with French army officers and Resistance fighters, Clark laid out the plan for the American landing and opened the discussion for who would be entrusted with leading the French forces.
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/9884/ttttttttttttttttttttttttseraphyh7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
On the campus at The Citadel in Charleston, SC, the Seraph Monument is a memorial consisting of relics from HMS Seraph, including the periscope and a forward torpedo loading hatch. Both the U.S. and British flags fly from the structure to symbolize that this English submarine was placed under the command of an American Naval officer for its TORCH mission. It is the only shore installation in the U.S. permitted to fly the Royal Navy White Ensign
See, the problem was, as anyone who has seen Casablanca (one of the greatest movies of all time BTW) knows, after the Nazi occupation of France, the Germans had propped-up a puppet French government loyal to Hitler popularly known as "Vichy."
Under the armistice agreement Germany foisted on the defeated French, the Reich was granted control of three-fifths of France. In France, a Nazi-friendly government was established under Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain in the southern French resort city of Vichy.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1452/tttttttttttttttttttttttttttpetainbcz6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Pétain, seen here, and his prime minister, Pierre Laval, established a Fascist-oriented government that became notorious for its collaboration with German dictator Adolf Hitler. The Vichy government ruled with Germany's approval, appointing all government officials, controlling the press, and practicing arbitrary arrests. The government also passed anti-Semitic laws and rounded up French, Spanish, and Eastern European Jews who were deported to German concentration camps. After the Allies landed in France in 1944, Pétain went to Germany and then to Switzerland. He returned to France after the war to stand trial for treason. In August 1945 he was found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment -- mostly because he had been a hero during WWI when he led a courageous defense at Verdun. After sentencing, he was moved to Ile d'Yeu, an island off the coast of Brittany, where he later died.
Under the terms of that 1940 armistice, the Vichy government was allowed to maintain enough of a military force to protect its colonies. Nazi occupation troops monitored the French military to insure it could not rebuild to mount a rebellion.
Though the French were denied new equipment or parts for their aging military forces, the Vichy still fielded a respectable armed presence. In French Morocco alone, one of three proposed landing sites for the planned Allied invasion, there remained an army of 55,000 supported by 160 light tanks, 80 armored cars, artillery batteries and 160 fighter aircraft.
Sheltered inside the great port at Casablanca was one French cruiser, three large destroyers, seven additional destroyers, and the as-yet-unfinished but combat-capable battleship Jean Bart. Churchill and Roosevelt also knew that a similarly formidable French/Algerian force could be quickly mounted to repulse any Allied invasion at the two other proposed landing sites, Oran and Algiers.
Therefore, French forces still in the field around the world in France's colonial possessions had become the enemy of US and British forces. This meant there was a very real fear that the French forces still in North Africa would oppose any Allied landings and kill our boys.
Gen. Charles De Gaulle, so instrumental in the organization of Resistance forces, was ruled out. De Gaulle had organized more than a few Resistance operations in which his collection of recalcitrant Froggies had killed large number of uniformed Frenchmen who took orders from Marshal Petain and Vichy France -- thus making him rather unpopular among the Vichy French forces.
Therefore, Allied leaders believed DeGaulle would prove antagonistic to those French soldiers and officers loyal to Petain and Vichy France, but who might be encouraged to turn on their German masters when supported by a massive Allied operation. The Allies banked on the notion that the Vichy French army and naval forces would not be willing to stick their necks out in a stand-up fight against an overwhelming Allied display of power.
It was finally agreed that Gen. Henri Giraud would lead the African French, as he had support in both the Vichy and Free French camps.
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/5672/ttttttttttttttttttttttgeneralgiraudsz8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Henri Giraud
The meeting was interrupted at one point by the arrival of French police loyal to the Vichy government. Clark and company had to hide out in a nearby wine cellar. The conference resumed the next day--and plans for bringing the "Torch" of freedom to French North Africa took final shape. The successful Allied landings began on Nov. 8, 1942 amid only sporadic Vichy French opposition and helped lead to the ultimate defeat of the kraut Afrika Corps.
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/1067/ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt04beachlandingwk9.j pg (http://imageshack.us)
As an aside, Gen. Clark lost his pants while coming ashore from the British submarine in a rubber dinghy on this day. Those pants are still in the collection of the The Citadel Archives and Museum at your correspondent's undergrad alma mater. Mark Clark became president after his retirement from the Army following the Korean War. Gen. Clark is the only person buried on campus.
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/9440/tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttphoto170qf4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)